Get Organized… Leads to Productivity

I must confess that I am huge neat freak. Some people probably even consider it a case of OCD. I can go out for the day, come back, and tell if somebody has used something of mine. If I see something out of place, I can’t rest until it is put back where it belongs. Many times I even catch myself moving an object inch by inch, until it is in the right place. On numerous occasions, I re-organize everything from the furniture in my house, how documents are stored on my computer, to re-wiring the cables behind the desk , and its not because it got messy. No… its because I just love to organize and clean. It is a hobby (maybe even a passion?) of mine, and I love the feeling of knowing everything has its own place.

When it comes to organizing ideas and tasks, people do it in many different ways; however, not every method results in good productivity. Naturally everyone uses a structure that best suits there lifestyle, so rather then pronouncing all other cases of organization terrible, I will share how I keep tabs of all my ideas and tasks.

As a student, I never liked writing my assignments in a planner. I always had a knack for remembering everything that needed to be done, and then knocking it out. A method I used to help remember involved retracing each class and then what assignments were given. It worked well for me though my school days, but as I time progressed I didn’t have that structure of classes to go through to remember things that need to be done. So I ventured out on a mission to find a new way of organizing.

I first came across a mixture of Microsoft Office Outlook and Notepad (on the computer). Outlook’s task manager was used to arrange things that needed to be done and I used Notepad to list stocks and investments I was interested in. It worked well for a while, but eventually it got tedious and the clutter factor started to take a toll on me. I have a few different laptops and computers situated around the house, and I use everyone one of them, but all my ideas and tasks are on one computer, so it got annoying to keep going back and forth. I also didn’t really like using notepad to keep track of my investment ideas. Bring in the REAL notepad.

We have now arrived to my method of choice: using an actual notebook. I always keep one next to my main computer, and when I come across something I need to look into I just jot it down. There is no real organization to it. I just write wherever there is empty space. Then next time I sit down at my desk, ready to do work, I just look at the current page that I am at in my notebook and see whats going on. What I really like about this method of organization is that everything is kept on a record. Sometimes I just like to look back and see what I was busy doing a couple months ago. Also it is mobile, so I don’t need to turn the computer on to see what I need to do. Here is an excerpt from a page in my notebook:

What methods do you use to keep track of things?